Transport costs to rise by 5.6%

Rochdalians will pay 5.6 per cent more for their public transport services this year – but the lion’s share of the rise will help pay to bring Metrolink to the town.

The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities met in Rochdale and approved the Integrated Transport Authority’s new budget for the financial year which begins in April. Householders will pay a levy on top of their council tax to contribute to the £174m the ITA expects to spend.

Three per cent of the increase, however, had been agreed in advance to finance the Greater Manchester Transport Fund which was set up to pay for improvements, including the Metrolink extension to Rochdale.

The budget includes £250,000 extra to pay for strengthening train services through Mills Hill and Greenfield after the Department for Transport refused to let Greater Manchester use the pacer trains which worked the Rochdale/Oldham loop line — now closed for conversion to Metrolink — without paying for them.

Good news for bus travellers is that the council leaders decided not to increase the 80p concessionary fares payable by children and pensioners travelling in the rush hour.

But a report to AGMA warned: “As the funding for costs in 2011/12 has not yet been determined by the DfT, and the existing fixed price agreements agreed with operators cover the period to March, 2011, there remains a significant risk that funding for 2011/12 and subsequent years may not be in line with forecast costs.”

It adds that recent research suggests that costs of operating the national concessionary fare scheme “will increase substantially as a result of increases in costs, fares, and demographic changes”.

The authority pays for bus services on routes which the operators decide are not commercially viable. The cost of that has soared in recent years and it has reduced the amount for subsidised mileage by 119,000 miles a year.

The report warns: “Whilst every effort to achieve efficiencies in this way will continue in 2010/11, there remains the risk that costs will not be contained at current levels.”